A statue of a slumbering Ariadne is in the foreground of this image of a desolate public square, rendered in de Chirico’s distinctive simple and broad forms. According to the Greek myth, Theseus abandoned his lover Ariadne on the island of Naxos while she slept. Ariadne acquired great personal symbolic meaning for de Chirico after he moved to Paris in 1911 and entered a period of isolation and loneliness. A dreamy escape into the classical past, the painting also serves as a retreat into de Chirico’s memories of his childhood in Greece.

the artist, Paris (1913–21; on consignment in 1919 to Paulhan; acquired at the end of 1921 by Paulhan); Jean Paulhan, Paris (1921–55; sold, possibly through Pierre Matisse, to Marx); Samuel and Florene Marx, Chicago (1955–his d. 1964); Florene May Marx, later Mrs. Wolfgang Schoenborn, New York (1964–d. 1995; her bequest to MMA)